Insights into Pharmaceutical Marketing

Thought Leaders

July 03, 2012

We see ACOs (Accountable Care Organizations) potentially impacting business models for the pharma industry, and therefore are carefully monitoring the dynamics of ACO development so we can adjust our modeling systems appropriately. Read Dr. Mennen's blog on the situation.

June 25, 2012

Dr. Barry Mennen MD, Strategist and Advisor to ROI2, comments on his recent trip to a cancer conference held in June 2012 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Washington DC. The conference was sponsored by Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC), American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and Feinstein Kean Healthcare (an Ogilvy company.) www.turningthetideagainstcancer.org

June 22, 2012

Wow - 75% of KOLs Became Advocates Within Three Months! Our most recent oncology-focused case study shows how our clients have seen rapid adoption and measured the effectiveness of their outreach programs by optimizing networks of influence and referral patterns amoung Oncologists, Hematologists, GPs, PAs, NPs, IDN, and Payers. Be sure to Grab The Details.

May 21, 2012

We've been busy - just two weeks ago we delivered several performance enhancements and added technology that increases visibility and readability of several key product features. Today we're announcing another new version of the Market Intelligence Portal (MIP). We’ve added the ability to track interactions you have with providers and unified our user interface to make the portal even easier to use.

Contact Kevin Dougherty at (215)766-7006 for more information or to set up a product demonstration.

April 10, 2012

We're very pleased to welcome Mr. Les Hirsch to our leadership team. Les is a seasoned pharmaceutical executive with over 20 years experience in Global Marketing, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Market Research, and Financial Analysis, with expertise in Alliance Management, Life Cycle Planning, Product Launch, and Brand Strategy and the therapeutic areas of Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolics.

ROI2 is pleased to announce that Dr. Barry Mennen will moderate the expert panel, which will include members of key healthcare and pharmaceutical industry stakeholder communities.

Dr. Mennen is a board-certified pediatrician who practiced in upstate NY for five years before joining the pharmaceutical industry. He is licensed to practice medicine in New York, Maryland and Virginia, and is a certified medical publication planner. He has a BA from NYU, an MD from the University Of Cincinnati College Of Medicine. He finished his pediatric residency as chief resident at Albany Medical Center Hospital.

His experience during the 30 years spent in medical communications includes advertising, public relations, strategic consulting, and CME and non-CME medical education. The last two positions he held before working as a consultant were Chief Scientific Officer, Euro RSCG Life Worldwide and mostrecently, VP, Medical and Scientific Affairs, Medical Communications Division, Quintiles. Dr. Mennen specializes in the strategic areas of market preparation, messaging and positioning of medical products especially in relationship to the changing medical landscape and the likely future directions of medical practice.

We look forward to Dr. Mennen guiding a lively 30-minute conversation, and then moderating the 15-minute follow-up session. Be sure to join us!

" . . .a recent survey by Medscape found that 48 percent of specialists feel they are unfairly compensated and 52 percent of primary care doctors feel the same way. To some, this may be a ‘glass-half-full’ scenario - roughly half of all doctors continue to feel compensation matches their efforts. But might the percentages also suggest some docs could be vulnerable to financial overtures?"

This speaks to a larger concern about the government's emerging presence in healthcare. It's arguable that if the government has its way, physicians will be government employees, which may provide even more incentive to supplement income. Physicians have definitely experienced decreased incomes due to constraints and high liability insurance. Primary Care Physicians, for example, get the worst of it, while specialists are still able to sustain higher compensation.

Are further restrictions on relationships with Pharma the answer? Physicians are sought for their subject matter expertise, for their participation in educational efforts. Further interference would inhibit the consulting and speaking contracts many physicians enjoy, and often require in order to survive.

June 13, 2011

The demand has been steady, so we're pleased to announce that we've made it easy for anyone to request a demo of ROI2 solutions in action.

Just visit our new Demo Center, complete the quick, confidential information request, and we'll set it up. You can also download an informative Product Sheet, and find additional contact information if you'd like to reach out to our team directly.

May 11, 2011

Accelerating the awareness, and ultimate acceptance of a new pharma product in the marketplace is today dependent on the Key Opinion Leader. As we've previously discussed, the press-the-flesh sales tactics of old no longer get the job done. Now, it's about identifying and interacting with those influencers who are, in turn, going to evangelize on your behalf.

But simply labeling a physician or medical professional as a "KOL" is not enough. That label is a good start, but there's a mountain of additional detail that can be used to paint a more precise picture. ROI2, for example, invests considerable technology and time in to first identifying KOLs, and then categorizing them based on their most effective role (e.g. national, regional or local authorities; market drivers, scientific thought leaders, early adopters, rising stars, etc.).

There are dozens of potential KOL classifications, each with specific utilities. Once that is understood, it becomes easier to engage those KOLs by developing the proper peer network marketing plan. This allows you to concentrate on reaching out to advisory boards, contacting speaker bureaus, targeting sales and MC account managers, and shaping strategies for clinical trial investigators and publications.

Our system has more than 12 distinct KOL types, with evolving profile values that change based on myriad attributes and exchanges:

If, for example, someone is well published in a topic, or involved academically or scientifically in a particular disease state, but he or she does not see patients, speak on that topic or has a comparatively small network of followers, are they a KOL or are they better classified as a Thought Leader? If someone speaks educationally on a topic/disease and others listen, then the value of that person's ability to influence naturally starts to rise.

This also raises an important question: If there are those who adopt right away based on thought leadership, how can you know it was because of a single, specific thought leader, or if it was because of a new product indication? Perhaps they wanted to try it after they heard the thought leader, concurred with other peers and then validated through interaction with other innovators. ANd all of this doesn't even factor in additional variables including coverage assessment and spill-over effect by ZIP code, respective regions, states -- even national and global renown.

Essentially, we're trying to deterimine both what their reach is made of, and how far it extends. These are the scenarios we go through to give the most accurate assessment of KOLs and prospective KOLs possible. And that's how we can more precisely classify someone as a rising star, innovator, market driver, etc. With that understanding, information and influence efforts can be tailored accordingly, ensuring greater acceptance and success.